December 07, 2022
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0How Scammers Use Phishing to Steal Crypto Wallets
Every year, cybercriminals and scammers come up with more and more new ways to steal not only data but also users’ money. And if in the case of data all the methods are more or less clear, then the methods of stealing cryptocurrencies are breaking all records for originality.
The best crypto wallets to choose from are here.
For example, many are trying to sell scarce mining equipment, others lure victims with gifts from crypto exchanges — or Elon Musk himself. There are a lot of ways and options. But how can you avoid falling for the bait of cybercriminals and keep your savings?
Today we will talk about free scanning and why it is important to reliably protect your data from hacking.
What is phishing? Learn more here.
The working scheme: Free money
The most banal yet proven scheme of deception is done with the help of a letter to thousands of gullible users. As a rule, the authors of such a scheme send a letter to the victim’s email with an offer to participate in the distribution of money in one of the cryptocurrencies — Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Litecoin (LTC), Tron (TRX), or Ripple (XRP).
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The amount can sometimes amaze and delight users because scammers are not stingy and sometimes offer as much as $800 million. After dangling a huge number, there are only three points of instruction given on how to get it.
It’s time for us to thoroughly study the letter. The sender’s address is the support service of a certain “Crypto Community.” So, for example, the association of crypto enthusiasts could well call itself.
But if you look closely at the domain in the sender’s email address, it has nothing to do with anything crypto. This should raise the first doubts about the authenticity of the letter and the favorable offer.
Then we drew attention to the text of the letter, which was written in an informal style and with many mistakes. This is also suspicious, and the percentage of trust is rapidly approaching zero.
If you still click on the link, you will be taken to a phishing site. Its domain has nothing to do with what was in the sender’s address, and there is no mention of any Crypto Community there.
At this stage, it is suggested for the victim to choose the wallet they would like to use. After all, it is there that the money will be transferred in case of a win.
By the way, the criminals tried to cover all the most common wallets — Blockchain.com, Trust Wallet, MetaMask, Coinbase, Binance, Crypto.com, and Exodus.
And for those who have not found their own from the list of popular options, there is a button “Other wallets.” Everything for the client!
Now the most interesting thing: to get the cherished tokens, the user must enter a secret phrase, which is also a seed phrase. As soon as they fill in the fields and press the Next button, a notification will appear on the screen that everything was successful and the transfer will be credited to the account within a day.
Well, the user just gave access to their wallet to scammers.
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What can a seed phrase tell criminals?
Unfortunately, not many people know that a seed phrase is an equally important component of wallet and data security, like a private key that is created at the registration stage. And if everyone keeps the private key secret and understands that it is not necessary to disclose it, then this seed phrase is treated simply as the name of the account. Therefore, many people easily enter this phrase into the window for the sake of winning on unknown websites.
This phrase is no less valuable. With its help, an attacker can generate a new private key and thus gain access to the victim’s wallet.
That is, the private key and the keyword are important components that make up the security of the wallet. Therefore, the seed phrase should be protected from prying eyes and ears as carefully as the key.
How to protect your crypto finances
We hope that now our readers are aware of how important it is to keep secret any access to crypto wallets or other accounts.
Nevertheless, we decided to prepare for you some tips on how not to become a victim of a fraudulent scheme and keep your data and money safe:
- 1. Keep your seed phrases a secret. Private data for entering the wallet is only your access keys. Don’t tell anyone about them.
- 2. Do not store the secret phrase in public file sharing sites, and do not send it via messengers or by email.
- 3. Do not follow the links from notifications about prize draws, gift payments, account blocking, and bank account closure. Often such letters come from intruders.
Find out several other rules for data and money protection here.
